大象传媒

JAMES GLEW, Sapper, 248 Field Company, Royal Engineers
Jim always had nightmares and had a poor night鈥檚 sleep following evening discussions about the war. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know why you have to ask him about the war鈥�, Irene once said, 鈥淭elling the stories brings all the bad memories back for him. He shouts out in his sleep. I think he is fighting the Gerries all over again.鈥�
After his retirement, Jim was repeatedly asked if he would like to go back to Italy and visit Florence and Anzio. But he wouldn鈥檛 go, even though offers we made to take him. His refusals were understandable really, he had enough to last a life time when he was there during the fighting. The film actor Audie Murphy, was with an American infantry regiment during the war, and also fought at Anzio. He did return to Italy some years later, but said that the visit to Anzio had been very distressing for him.
Jim was just over 20 years old when he enlisted into the army on June 4th 1942, and was posted to No.6 Training Battalion, Royal Engineers, at Elgin in Scotland. The army medical recorded Jim鈥檚 physical description as:- Height 5ft 7 ins; Weight 122lb; Eyes Blue; Hair Brown; Chest when fully expanded 34 inches; Range of expansion 3 inches.
.... 鈥淲e once route marched our way from camp to the air base at Lossiemouth, and then all the way back again鈥�....

Whilst at Elgin, he passed his Trade test as Plumber and Pipe Fitter BIII, on 12th August 1942. After the basic training he was posted to 248 Field Company, Royal Engineers, in November 1942. After a short leave, Jim and a friend from the basic training camp travelled to Norfolk to join their company, arriving there only to find that the unit had moved to a temporary home near Glasgow. The two friends finally caught up with their new unit and Jim鈥檚 title was now Sapper James Glew, No. 2160924, 2nd. Platoon, 248 Field Company (a Field Company鈥檚 complement was usually 5 officers and 250 other ranks).
Operation Torch
Jim had almost completed his basic training at Elgin, when a convoy left the Clyde in November 1942 bound for North Africa. The convoy carried British and American troops of the Eastern Task Force of Operation Torch. A similar convoy had already left the United States carrying the American units that would be taking part in the North African landings. On 8th November, simultaneous landings were made at Casablanca, Oran and Algiers. The Eastern Task Force landed at Algiers and was renamed the British 1st Army and was responsible for leading the way into Tunisia. At this point the 1st Army was not yet an army in the full sense of the word, comprising as it did 2 British infantry brigades (11 and 36 of 78th division); a small portion of the 6th Armoured division and 3 battalions of the 1st British parachute brigade.

First Army had to press on eastward and race towards Tunis before the Axis command could reinforce North Africa. The ports of Bougie and Bone lay 100 and 225 miles respectively east of Algiers and their capture was important for ships bringing supplies to the army. Bougie was captured on the 11th and Bone taken the following day by the 1st Army.

The Germans quickly and surprisingly, reinforced Tunis and effectively stopped the British advance. The 1st Army achieved a great deal with meagre forces and were halted 25 miles from Tunis. The first phase was over. The 1st Army, what there was of it, hung on, pounded from the air and on the ground by a fast growing enemy throughout the winter, without respite. The new year saw the 1st Army being reinforced with the addition of the 46th Division during January.

North Africa
Over Christmas 1942, and during January and February 1943, the 1st Division was being formed, and based around Glasgow. 248 Field Company formed part of the 1st Division, and Jim and his friends were given shoulder badges of the new divisional insignia - a white isosceles triangle, point uppermost.
The 1st Army was to be sent further reinforcements, and so the 1st Division found themselves embarked upon troop transports in Gourock. The convoy sailed out of the Clyde on the last day of February 1943, to a destination unknown to the troops onboard. Jim was one small part of the First Division, and he was leaving the shores of Britain for the first time. Sailing north of Ireland the convoy of transports and escorting destroyers set a south westerly course out into the Atlantic. A few days later the ships passed through the Straits of Gibraltar in darkness. The Rock was visible and lights could be seen on each side of the strait. Any doubts about where the convoy was heading were now dispelled to those on board.
....鈥漌e arrived at Algiers on March 9th 1943, where our troop ship docked in the evening, and we were disembarked and marched around and around the town for most of the night. A Scots Guards band played their pipes and drums as we marched. The sounds of frogs croaking mixed with the noises of air raids in and around the town. We re-embarked on the same ship a few hours later and sailed 300 miles along the coast to Bone, and landed there the following evening, to the sound of an air raid鈥� ....
The 1st Division was now part of V Corps of the 1st Army and the months of training would now be called upon.
1st Army received further reinforcements in April 1943 with the addition of the 4th Division and was now a much stronger force than when it had first landed in North Africa, five months earlier in November 1942. The 1st Army now consisted of the British V and IX Corps, the US II Corps and the French XIX Corps. The V Corps was composed of: 1st, 4th, 46th and 78th infantry divisions and the 6th Armoured division.
Minesweeping
As a Sapper, one of Jim鈥檚 many skills of the trade was to deal with mines. Laying and lifting our own British mine fields as well as sweeping the enemy ones. He told us of the three types of mine he encountered in North Africa.
鈥� 鈥淭he 鈥楾eller鈥� mine was Gerry鈥檚 anti tank mine. The 鈥楽鈥� and 鈥楽hoe鈥� type of anti personnel mines. The 鈥楽鈥� type was a vicious mine, because once it was triggered off, it fired a canister to about waist height, before exploding and spreading shrapnel over a large area. The Shoe mine would detonate in the ground and injure feet and legs.鈥�....
.... 鈥淚 once went into a mine field to guide the stretcher bearers out to two wounded sappers, who had set off German anti personnel mines. One was a bloke called Spider, 鈥榗os he was so thin, and the other was the sergeant. I got to Spider in time to see blood spew from his mouth and he died. I heard the sergeant calling, and we made our way over to him. Shrapnel from the mine had badly gashed his stomach. We carried him back out. I didn鈥檛 think about it at the time, but was scared when I thought of it afterwards鈥� ....

April 1943 found the 1st Division attacking high ground to the south of the northern road to Tunis. The Germans were putting up stiff resistance and the division had to slog away in the face of a resolute enemy. Life had been made more difficult because the tank regiment supporting the attack suffered heavy casualties from German Tiger tanks. After six days of heavy fighting, their objectives were finally achieved.
A German account of one small part of the campaign says, 鈥榃e observed sappers clearing a passage through the minefield. We were unable to do anything about it, lest we were to display our own weaknesses. We also had to conserve ammunition. Soon we understood the meaning of the sappers efforts. Sixteen Churchills supported by infantry approached our position. We let them get fairly close before our anti-tank guns opened up with a murderous fire鈥�.
The same action from the British side: 鈥業t was the minefields that effectively prevented the infantry / tank co-operation being successful. The sappers had gapped the minefields in three places. The minefields were Teller minefields with no anti-personnel 鈥淪鈥� mines. Consequently, the leading infantry companies were able to go straight through the minefields, direct to their objectives, as our experience was that Infantry did not set off Teller mines, even if they trod on them. However, the tanks had to go through the three gaps in the minefields and were then to fan out in support of the infantry companies. Churchill tanks were very slow and the German anti-tank guns were easily picking off the Churchills as they came through the gaps in the minefields. Individual tanks that attempted to deviate blew up on the minefields鈥�.
By the end of April, V Corps had succeeded in clearing the high ground up both roads to Tunis, but at significant cost and in much slower time than had been initially hoped.
The spring of 1943 saw that victory was now within the grasp of the Allied forces in North Africa. The British 8th Army under Montgomery had linked up with the 1st Army and they were now poised for the final blow against the German and Italian armies.
There was one more preliminary task which had to be undertaken before the main attack on Tunis could be launched. Although much of the high ground west of Tunis had been captured during the April fighting, there was still one feature, Bou Aoukaz, which influenced the progress of the main thrust, and the task of capturing this height was given to the 1st Division. They were to take it on the night of 5 May, and the operation opened at 1645 with an ear-splitting crash, as the combined artillery of V and IX Corps stonked the enemy positions. Shortly after midnight, Bou Aoukaz was in British hands and the main attack could go in. The speed of advance over the remaining few miles along the northern plains to Tunis caught the Germans unawares and their forces were effectively caught in the pincers between the 1st and 8th armies.
On May 12th 1943, four days before Jim鈥檚 21st birthday, the German Afrika Corps surrendered. The First Italian Army surrendered on the following day. A quarter of a million enemy prisoners were captured, with a massive arsenal of equipment. General Alexander, in command of the 1st and 8th Armies, signalled Churchill:
鈥淪ir, it is my duty to report that the Tunisian Campaign is over. All enemy resistance has ceased. We are masters of the North African shores.鈥�
Although the fighting had stopped, there was still plenty of work for the Royal Engineer field companies to carry out. Mine fields had to be cleared, booby traps removed, bridges rebuilt, POW camps built etc. etc.
Jim recalled
.... It was then that I went down with a fever. Our unit Despatch Rider took me to the Field Hospital on the back of his motor bike. I was in the hospital for just over a week. After the war was over, I found out that Sonny had been in a hospital recovering from a wound, and his hospital hadn鈥檛 been far from where I was. We had no idea we had been so close. When I returned to my unit, I learned that the Despatch Rider had been killed, along with my platoon sergeant and other blokes were injured. The Company had been clearing booby traps from a German munitions dump, when a booby trap exploded. The Company CO was also seriously wounded in the explosion.....
(The replacement CO stayed with 248 Field Company for the remainder of Jim鈥檚 tour of duty. When Jim completed his tour overseas, in 1946, the Major wrote a testimonial for inclusion in Jim鈥檚 service record.)
Since landing in North Africa, just over two months before, 248 Field Company had lost three men killed.
But the completion of one campaign merely heralds the start of the next. On May 20th plans were well in hand for operation 鈥淐orkscrew鈥�, the assault and capture of the islands of Pantelleria, Lampedusa and Linosa. These islands lay between North Africa and Sicily, and were held by the Italians. The whole operation was to be carried out by the British 1st Division.

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